DELYTH JEWELL AM, Plaid Cymru local government spokesperson has said that it is ‘frankly offensive’ that the Health Minister has said that protecting care home residents and staff is not ‘the best use of resources’, when residents are dying every day.
Health Minister Vaughan Gething said in a radio interview that Wales would not be following the same policy as England of testing all care home residents and workers because it “wasn’t the best use of resources”.
Delyth Jewell added’
“Data released by the Office of National Statistics yesterday showed that deaths from Coronavirus occurring in care homes were much higher than initially thought, and there’s an unexpected increase in deaths not attributed to Covid-19 in some health boards which requires an explanation.
“Care home managers have told me that they need testing in order to be able to receive the information they need to prevent the spread of the virus, so the Health Minister’s decision contradicts what the sector is desperately calling for.
“Up until last Thursday, residents were routinely returning to care homes from hospital without being tested, which means that there’s a real possibility these testing failures are responsible for avoidable outbreaks in care homes.”
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